Charged particle beams, such as those that are used in focused ion beam or scanning electron microscopes, are typically focused by scanning the beam over a sample with sharp edges. The incident charged beam generates a scanned image of the sample, and the beam is focused by maximizing the contrast of the scanned image. However, this focusing system requires a patterned sample with sharp features.
The same method of scanning and maximizing contrast in the scanned image may also be used in wide area particle beam systems used for electron beam inspection and lithography. In these systems, in addition to the requirement for the patterned sample, this focusing method interrupts the normal wide area operation, and the scanning of the beam over the sample may introduce charging artifacts.
Other methods for focusing electron beams are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,036, to Giedt, et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for automatically focusing an electron beam by determining the beam size. The beam is swept over a number of narrow slits, and the current profiles generated as the beam sweeps are used to find the beam size, and to focus the beam to an optimal position.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,726,919, to Azad, et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a system for measuring the effective focus of an electron beam. The electron beam generates a temperature profile of an irradiated target, and the temperature profile is measured optically. Beam focus operating parameters are varied until an error between the measured temperature profile and a predicted profile for an effective focus are less than a predetermined value.
In charged particle systems, astigmatism is considered a problem, and much effort has been expended to reduce the problem. For example, U.S. Patent Application 2003/0201393, to Tsuneta et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, is directed to improving performance of an electron microscope. The disclosure describes a stigmator that is used as a compensator for astigmatic aberration, currents through the stigmator being adjusted to reduce the astigmatism of the electron microscope to zero.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,559,456, to Muraki, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes an electron beam system. The system uses a dynamic stigmatic coil in the incoming beam path to set the astigmatism of the irradiating electron beam to be substantially equal to zero, by adjusting the blur of the focused beam to be equal in two orthogonal directions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,025,600, to Archie et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, and PCT application WO 03/041109, to Almogy et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describe charged particle beam systems.